


Warlock Cold - Thereafter

by TanteTao



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Magical Renovation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 15:34:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17645525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanteTao/pseuds/TanteTao
Summary: Magnus makes good use of his returned magic to fix his loft.





	Warlock Cold - Thereafter

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Warlock Cold](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15627291) by [TanteTao](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanteTao/pseuds/TanteTao). 



> My heartfelt thanks go to my beta reader Jimmy C. as well as to my beta reader and most fervent cheerleader [AlterEgon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlterEgon/pseuds/AlterEgon).

They'd both needed a shower and a change of clothes after their reunion. Magnus had used a healing spell on his forehead so he could actually take a shower as well.

"So, what do you want to do with the rest of the evening, now that you have your magic back?" Alec asked as they were both getting dressed again.

Magnus smiled at him. "If you don't mind, I'd like to order takeout and work on eliminating all the signs of warlock cold from the loft."

Alec hesitated for only a second. Yes, they'd planned to cook dinner together and talk and cuddle tonight, but he could totally understand his boyfriend's desire to purge all reminders of the disease from his life. "Okay. What do you want me to do?" He didn't have magic to help restore the rooms to their former state, after all.

"You could wipe the sign off the front door, Alexander. You could also help me decide what to do with our bedroom and our bathroom."

Alec frowned. "Aren't you just going to return them to how they were?"

"Not unless you insist on it," Magnus informed him. "I'm seeing this as an opportunity to change both rooms into _our_ rooms. Where we choose the layout and the colors and the furniture together. We also need to sort through everything that's still in there to see what can be repaired and what needs to be replaced."

A warm feeling spread in Alec's chest at Magnus' declaration that he wanted to turn those rooms into _theirs_. He'd called them theirs in his mind already, of course, but being involved in redecorating felt significant. He stepped closer to Magnus, cupped his face in both of his hands and kissed his boyfriend, gently, on the lips. "Thank you. I'd love to help you choose all that."

Magnus leaned into the kiss for a moment before he pulled back a little. "You're welcome, Alexander. I'll start in on the rooms while you take care of the sign."

Alec nodded and left the bedroom.

*

When Alec returned from wiping the chalk sign off the door, Magnus was busy sorting through those clothes that Alec had deemed 'unwearable' and separating them into two piles.

"Which are you going to keep?" Alec asked from behind his boyfriend.

Magnus flinched in surprise and whipped around, magic already sparkling around his fingertips.

Alec raised his hands in mock-surrender. "Easy, Magnus. It's just me," he said.

Magnus let the magic dissipate and gave Alec a sheepish look. "I'm sorry, Alexander. I was so focused on my task I didn't hear you walk in."

Alec smiled at him. "It's okay, Magnus. I'm sure it's just because I'm moving so stealthily."

Magnus raised one eyebrow. "Did you cheat and activate your stealth rune?"

That made Alec chuckle. "No, I didn't need to. The sign on the front door is gone, by the way."

"Good," Magnus stated with satisfaction. It would probably still take some time before other warlocks were willing to enter the building again – at least those who'd actually seen the mark. He couldn't in good conscience have taken it off before now, though. With his magic back under his control, he was sure he was no longer contagious.

"So, which of those clothes are you going to keep, Magnus?" Alec repeated his earlier question.

Magnus pointed to the smaller pile. Seeing his boyfriend's surprised look, he shrugged. "Most of those aren't worth the magical effort it would take to return them to a wearable state. So, with a heavy heart, I've decided to throw most of them away and go shopping in the near future."

Alec moved to his boyfriend's side and inspected the 'keep' pile. It was easy to identify two of Magnus' favorite shirts in the heap as well as the black jacket with gold braids. He would have had to actually pick up individual pieces if he wanted to know what else Magnus was going to save.

"You need to look through your things still, Alexander," Magnus reminded him.

Alec just shrugged. "Anything that's damaged can be thrown out. I don't have any special or favorite clothes and will just buy some new ones."

Magnus gasped and looked at his boyfriend in shock. "You aren't even going to take a look at them first?"

"Magnus, I do understand that you want to save items that have a special meaning for you or are just especially pretty. _I_ , however, don't prefer one over the other. Anything that's damaged gets thrown out and replaced," Alec insisted.

Magnus sighed. "Do you mind if _I_ take a look at them?"

Alec smiled at him. "Be my guest. I'll sort through the rest of the rubble in here to make sure there's nothing important left in it, okay?"

"Sure," Magnus told him distractedly as he approached his boyfriend's part of the damaged wardrobe.

*

A short while later, Alec returned from carrying a few small knickknacks from their night stands into the living room to see Magnus throw one of his button-downs on the 'keep' pile. The young man frowned. That shirt in particular was in tatters… "Magnus? Are you sure you're not putting this one on the wrong heap?"

Magnus gave him a confused look, then let his gaze travel between the two piles of clothes. "Yes, I'm sure," he finally replied firmly.

"But… that thing's shredded! Just throw it away!"

"No." Magnus shook his head. "This is the shirt you were wearing the first time I saw you. It stays."

Alec couldn't deny the warm feeling that statement caused. He himself wouldn't have even thought of that. He also couldn't remember what Magnus had been wearing that day. Did that make him a bad boyfriend? He hoped not. "Okay, okay. It stays."

Magnus aimed a beaming smile his way. "Good. Will you carry these," he gestured to the pile of clothes he wanted to keep, "to the living room as well while I dispose of everything else in the bedroom? Then we can continue with the bathroom."

"Sounds good to me," Alec told him. He made sure to pick up the entire heap before he made his way to the living room.

*

Magnus waited until the door had closed behind Alexander and then locked it with a spell. Next, he walked into the center of the room and began to gather magic. This was going to be a _little_ more complicated than a ventilation spell.

Once he was sure he had collected enough power for his purpose, Magnus began to shape the spell that would reduce everything in the bedroom to fine dust and then teleport it to the nearest dump. He had to remain focused for that part. The walls and floor and ceiling needed to stay where they were, after all.

Magnus breathed a deep sigh of relief when he let go of the magic and the spell took the intended shape and effect. He wiped the sweat off his forehead, surprised by the sheer amount his skin had produced in a relatively short time. It usually took more than one spell to make him perspire this much.

After a few more moments to collect himself, Magnus unlocked the door again and let Alexander back into the bedroom.

*

"Wow!" was the first word Alec managed to say out loud as he took in the now-empty room. Magnus had even stripped the paint from the walls and the wood from the floor, so the room was really bare.

"If you think this is 'wow', Alexander, you'll be speechless once we're done with it," Magnus informed him with a smile. "Now, let's tackle the bathroom before we redecorate."

Alec nodded. It was sensible to get both rooms cleaned up before they put anything in them again.

*

Cleaning out the bathroom didn't take long: Magnus just made a list of things to replace before he sent Alec outside for a moment and disposed of everything in the room, including the tiles.

When Alec walked back in, Magnus rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Alright, Alexander. Time for the fun part. I will, of course, repair the damaged wall, but first we need to think about how these rooms should look afterwards. We could add a small dressing room or walk-in closet, for example."

Alec frowned. "Won't the bedroom feel rather crowded if you divide it into a bedroom _and_ a dressing room?"

Now Magnus looked confused. "Why would it? I'll just enlarge the room a bit."

Alec refrained from pointing out that, as far as he was concerned, there was no 'just' about enlarging one room inside a building without changing the size of the other rooms or the building itself. Sometimes he forgot how powerful his boyfriend really was.

"Which would you prefer, Alexander?" Magnus wanted to know.

"My clothes don't really need much space, but since even the five-door wardrobe was barely big enough for all of yours, a walk-in closet might be a good idea," Alec told him with a shrug.

"A walk-in closet it is," Magnus said with a beaming smile. "Please stay still while I work, Alexander."

Alec went to stand behind his boyfriend and slightly to the side. "Alright, Magnus. I'm not going to move until you tell me you're done."

Magnus nodded and started to gather more magic. Beads of sweat began to dot his forehead as he concentrated on the way he wanted the rooms to look afterwards.

Alec could almost _feel_ the energy in the air around his boyfriend and automatically took slow, shallow breaths, as if not to breathe in any of the sparkling swirls.

Once he had summoned a sufficient amount of power for the complex spell, Magnus released all of it at once with a complicated movement of his hands.

Together, he and Alec watched his magic change the shape of the room they were standing in.

*

It took about five minutes before everything had stopped moving.

Magnus was panting. Holding his concentration for that long was exhausting. He'd regained most of his magical strength after the warlock cold, but his magical stamina had obviously suffered as well. He'd need to build it again for bigger workings.

"Magnus? Why don't we take a break? We could order dinner and continue this afterwards," Alec suggested.

Magnus shook his head. "Not yet. I need to check whether everything is as it should be."

"Alright. We'll take a look and _then_ we take a break and eat something," Alec amended.

Magnus nodded reluctantly and let his gaze travel through the room.

The bedroom itself had stayed roughly the same size but had acquired a second window and two doors – one dark wood and one frosted glass – instead of one.

They walked through the wooden door first and entered a room about half the size of the bedroom. There was no window in any of the walls – which was only logical since none of them were outer walls. Two skylights bathed the room in bright sunlight, though.

Alec was absolutely sure that the loft hadn't had any skylights before. Considering that _this room_ hadn't even existed ten minutes ago, he assumed the addition of new light sources shouldn't have surprised him.

Magnus led his boyfriend back into the bedroom and through the glass door. The bathroom was now roughly L-shaped, filling the other half of the bedroom's length and extending beyond and behind the newly created walk-in closet.

That wasn't what had Alec speechless and slack-jawed, though: The corner of the outer wall of the bathroom as well as about nine feet of wall in both directions had been replaced by what looked like floor-to-ceiling glass panes. Several more large windows flooded the room with sunlight.

"Do you like it?" Magnus wanted to know.

Alec tried to speak, but couldn't get a word out. He swallowed and then cleared his throat. "It's… different," he stated, not sure what to say.

Magnus' face fell. "You _don't_ like it."

"No… I mean, yes… I mean—" Alec took a deep breath and tried again. "It's much larger than before, and I'm sure it will look great, but… Why did you put so much glass in the walls? I really don't like the thought that people can watch us bathe or shower from the next house over – or from even farther away, if they have binoculars or the spell-equivalent."

"What?" Magnus looked confused, then his expression changed into a mixture of relief and mirth. "No, Alexander, of course they won't be able to look into our bathroom. I am going to spell and ward those windows before we use this bathroom for the first time. Nobody will be able to get a look into the room from outside."

Of course. Now Alec felt slightly stupid. Why hadn't he realized that Magnus would be able to adjust the windows to suit their needs?

"I can also change the view they show, if we ever decide we'd rather see something other than New York from our bathroom," Magnus continued, oblivious to his boyfriend's thoughts. Secretly, he thought he might even be able to tweak the necessary spells to the point where they reacted to verbal commands without any use of power – meaning that Alec would be able to change the view himself. He didn't want to tell his boyfriend about this possibility though until he was absolutely sure he could pull it off.

"Could you choose any place in the world to watch? How would this work?" Alec was somewhat worried they'd be 'spying' on others if Magnus changed the windows to show them some other scenery.

"I would use my own memories to create sceneries we'd then choose from. I've seen many countries in my life, I'm sure we can find a few themes we both like," Magnus explained.

"Of course we will," Alec agreed. This was much better than he'd thought. If the view was based on memories, they wouldn't intrude on strangers' lives. "So, dinner now?"

Magnus smiled. "Dinner now. What are you in the mood for?"

They began to walk towards the kitchen.

*

They'd agreed on Chinese, and Magnus had summoned their favorite dishes from a high quality Asian restaurant while Alec had set the table.

The food smelled absolutely delicious and they both felt famished. They spent the meal talking some more about their ideas for furnishing and decorating the three rooms later as well as discussing the state of affairs at the Institute. This, here, right now, felt like home for both of them.

After dinner, Alec offered to do the dishes so Magnus could conserve his magic and energy for more important tasks.

His boyfriend gladly accepted and opted for a short nap on the living room sofa.

*

They met again in the bedroom and Magnus got to work. He magically inlayed the floor with dark wood and painted the walls cream. Next, he summoned a king-size canopy bed made of dark, almost black, wood and two matching night stands. A thick mattress, already covered in cream-colored sheets, and pillows and duvets in blood-red bedclothes followed.

Alec was in awe and tempted to run his hands over it all. They'd spoken about this kind of furniture, of course, but there was a huge difference between talking about it and seeing it right in front of him!

Magnus added a huge closet and two large chests made of the same dark wood as the bed to the room. "These should give us enough room to store things like bedclothes and extra pillows. If we run out of space in there, I can always add another chest."

Alec nodded in agreement.

"We can place a few select books on top of the chests. Candles would also look good there, I think."

Alec watched as Magnus summoned several beautifully worked, leaf-shaped golden plates and decorated them with cream-colored and blood-red pillar candles of different heights and shimmering glass nuggets in gold, dark red, cream and clear. The latter had a translucent-iridescent quality to them.

"Do you like it?" Magnus then asked his boyfriend.

"It looks great, Magnus," Alec told him, awe resonating in his voice.

Magnus smiled at him before turning slowly to take in the whole room and gage the overall atmosphere. There were still so many details to add! He took care of the ceiling next, adding a stucco ceiling molding around the room as well as in a circle in the middle of the ceiling. Next, he made the ceiling cream-colored and hung a huge golden chandelier – similar to the one in their old bedroom, but picking up the foliage theme – from the center of the circle.

Instead of putting small lights on the night stands, Magnus placed golden branches with golden leaves and bud-shaped light bulbs on the wall above each night stand and wirelessly connected them to small, golden, switches that looked like foliage shed by the branches on top of the night stands.

Alec felt somewhat overwhelmed by the speed at which his boyfriend was now working his magic. He also grew a little worried that Magnus would deplete his magical energy with all the decorating. A week ago, he'd been too weak to stand on his own!

"Magnus?" he approached his boyfriend, who seemed to be contemplating the choice of curtains – or was looking at the windows, at least.

"Yes, Alexander?" Magnus turned around to face the young man.

"Don't you think the more decorative elements can wait?" Alec wanted to know. Seeing Magnus' crestfallen look, he immediately began to explain his reasons. "There are still two more rooms to go, and we will need a fully functional bathroom if we want to move back into our bedroom. I'd rather have two functional rooms than one fully decorated one. Most of all, I don't want _you_ to collapse from trying to renovate the whole loft in one day."

That made Magnus smile again. "I guess you are right about that, Alexander. Let's move to the bathroom and see what we can come up with there."

'Move to the bathroom' wasn't exactly the right choice of words, since they stopped in the open door and Magnus gathered some more magic. A few minutes later, the bathroom floor and walls were covered in shiny, light honey-colored, elegantly-veined marble. The ceiling developed a stucco molding similar to the one in the bedroom and changed its color to light honey. A sheet of magic settled over the windows and seemed to be absorbed by the glass.

Alec assumed that that was the spell that would give them privacy in their bathroom. "Is it safe to step inside?" he wanted to know, still awed by the transformation of the room.

"Of course," Magnus replied, walking into the center of the room. "Do you like the color?"

Alec nodded, barely able to believe that this was going to be their new bathroom. He couldn't wait to see what the finished room was going to look like!

Magnus slowly spun in the center of the room, contemplating the placement of everything he wanted to have in there. They'd spoken about their preferences for the bathroom, of course, but Alec had contributed far less elaborate ideas. To the young Shadowhunter, it was important they had the usual amenities – and maybe a slightly bigger-than-normal tub that his long legs could fit into. Magnus, on the other hand, had trouble deciding which of the many options he wanted to choose.

In the end, he opted for a white porcelain toilet against the short wall, separated from the door by a waist-high wall covered in the same marble as the floor and walls. The cistern was hidden inside a marble-covered projection in the wall.

Magnus placed a low shelf made of dark wood on the other side of the door for their towels and mounted golden, leaf-shaped hooks on the wall next to the door for their bathrobes.

Alec couldn't take his eyes from his boyfriend. The ease and grace with which Magnus used his magic and the aesthetic results of his work were incredibly… attractive. He was most definitely looking forward to breaking in their new bed tonight!

Magnus, oblivious to the direction his boyfriend's thoughts had taken, had already walked towards the 'corner with a view'. There, he raised a square piece of floor about half a foot and then placed a huge, free-standing, rectangular white porcelain tub on it. One side of the tub sported a ledge to sit on. Magnus encased the tub in marble to hide the plumbing and added one marble-covered step to the side with the ledge. The fittings were golden, of course, with a dial for the exact temperature and a leaf-shaped handle to turn on the water. Finally, Magnus summoned LED spots and massage nozzles to the inside wall of the tub.

"Wow!" was all Alec managed to say as he took in their new tub. There was plenty of room for both of them in it, and the ledge was placed so they could sit there and enjoy the view.

"I take it you like it?" Magnus asked with a happy grin.

"Like it? I _love_ it!" Alec exclaimed. He felt tempted to strip and take a bath _right now._ That was going to have to wait until later, though. The bathroom was still far from complete, and he'd been serious when he'd said that they needed a fully functional bathroom to move back into the master bedroom. Alec really didn't fancy the idea of waking up in the middle of the night – or in the morning, for that matter – with a pressing need for a bathroom and having to walk all the way to the other side of the loft. While their bathroom held a toilet now, there still was no sink.

Magnus proceeded to place a row of marble-topped counters made of dark wood against one wall and hung a huge rectangular mirror above the counters. He fixed a light-strip to the left, upper and right edge of mirror. Then he added two rectangular white sinks on the marble surface, with golden fittings and leaf-shaped handles for warm and cold water.

Alec wasn't sure they needed the added storage space of the counters but reconsidered as he remembered the amount of beauty products his boyfriend used regularly.

Turning his back to the mirror, Magnus summoned some more magic to build a shower against the wall in front of him: first, he created a marble-covered ledge about nine feet long, one and a half foot high and just as deep. Next, he placed a rectangular glass shower stall – nine feet long and four feet deep – so the ledge was inside. The glass was decorated with small, intricate frosted leaf patterns. Magnus changed the floor of the shower into very slight funnel shape and put a drain covered by a golden grate in the center.

As Alec watched, speechless, Magnus equipped the shower with LED spots, a rain shower head, massage nozzles, a hand-held shower head with long shower hose and a mixer valve for adjusting the temperature. All the fittings were golden and all handles leaf-shaped.

"Magnus… when are we ever going to need that much space in the shower?" Alec hadn't wanted to blurt out that thought, but he could hardly take it back now.

Magnus just smirked at him. "One, the different options need space. Two, I want to be able to enjoy showers with you without feeling like a sardine. Three, just imagine how much easier washing me during my illness would have been if you could have just sat me on a ledge in the shower…"

"Do you intend to repeat that experience?" Alec asked, eyebrows raised doubtfully.

Magnus shuddered. "Not necessarily, no. Now that I know – or rather, truly have realized – that neither warlocks nor Nephilim are immune to all diseases, I'd rather be prepared for the unlikely event that one of us contracts a serious one again, though, than just assume that all will be well from now on."

Alec stepped closer to his boyfriend, leaned forward a little and kissed Magnus. "I really like what you've done with the bathroom," he muttered against his boyfriend's lips. "Maybe we should leave the rest of the renovating for tomorrow? I'd love to try out our new tub."

Goose bumps rose on Magnus' skin at those words. "We can't," he cautioned, though. "I need to seal the marble first or the humidity or the bath additive might stain or damage it. The tub isn't spelled yet either."

"Spelled?" Alec asked, confused. It took a moment for him to remember the idea his boyfriend had had while he'd been sick. "You're going to add that heating spell?"

"Yes and no," Magnus replied. "I'm actually thinking about adding a temperature dial connected to a spell that keeps the bathwater at the chosen temperature for an indefinite time. That way we will both have full control over how hot or cold the water is."

"Wow, that sounds great, Magnus," Alec informed him. "Since it isn't an essential part of a working bathroom, how about you seal the marble right now and then we break in the tub and the bed. Everything else – including the spell – can wait until tomorrow, right?"

Magnus smirked and let his hands trail down his boyfriend's body from the shoulders to the hips. "Alright, you've convinced me, Alexander. Why don't you go to the bedroom and get out of those clothes while I seal the marble and start the hot water?"

*

The bed was bathed in glaring sunlight when Alec woke up, since neither of them had thought to put blinds, curtains or any magical cover over the windows last night. Alec could now say, beyond any doubt, that both the new bathroom and the new bedroom were fantastic. While the use of that much magic had tired Magnus out quite a bit, they'd still put the bed's sturdiness to the test during the night. It had passed with flying colors.

Rolling onto his side, Alec saw that Magnus was still fast asleep, the covers pulled up to shield his face from the light. He decided to let his boyfriend sleep in.

After a quick trip to the bathroom, Alec went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for them both.


End file.
